5430 Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Started in "row" three, a little to the right. Got the tar pounded out of me, and just wasn't feeling this swim. Stopped breathing on alternating sides immediately, and only breathed to the left. Fell into the groove of the swim after about 6 minutes. Thought that I took a pretty direct line, but the time was pretty average for me, I think.

Perhaps warm up swimming a bit more.

Second-fastest T1 in age group, 18th fastest overall. Tried the "Ricci Bike Hop Nard Knocking" method of mounting a rolling bike, and it pretty much worked. I was wobbling around on the bike to start, and a guy shouted, "You almost hit me!" For some reason, I told him to basically "Shut up and race," and just left him behind.

Actually run someone over maybe? This really was a strong transition.

This turned out to be a good bike ride. Pleased to be just under 23mph. I don't think that I had much more in the tank for this ride today. I really think that I passed far more people than passed me, which is fairly unusual for the bike. I think I'll keep this one.

Probably should have brought the aero drinky thingy rather than a water bottle on my drop bar. Also, should have had plain water instead of Gatorade Propel.

22d fastest T2 in age group, 516 overall. This was a slower transition because I had to tie my shoes. Also, John Eliot's bike was racked across from mine, and the flimsy rack kept dropping his bike out, so I had to re-rack his bike three times. Tore my race number, as usual, trying to put it on, and stuck foot in wrong.

Definitely should have had zip laces on shoes, tossed John's bike into the field (that's what he gets for arriving back in T2 ahead of me!) and maybe use some tape on my race numbers.

This was an easy pace for me, but for some reason I just didn't feel comfortable taking it up a notch. I was passed in the final stretch by a guy in my age group, which kicked in my nasty after-burners, and I must have put the last 100 yards down at around a 5:20 pace to re-pass the guy and stay ahead of others.

Nice to see Scott Binder & John Eliot ahead of me on the run, and ultimately get passed by Frank (who started five minutes later). Lots of D3 jerseys out there, although I may have been the only one in the one-piece pecker unit.

I probably should have run a bit harder, particularly in the first mile.

Finished and saw a ton of friends. Had a little food and waited around to see other finishers. It was great to see Scott Wylie and Margie Gart cruise across the line. Really just fun to see so many people that I have met over the years at these races now. Everyone seemed to be very happy, having a great time.


I think that the last month in my personal life took quite a toll on me. Also, flying in late the night before and getting very little sleep didn't help.


I'm very pleased with this race. Hard to believe that I took about 5 minutes off my time and that I'm faster at 46 than 45 (which was faster than 44). Nice to see that something other than my spare tire and hairloss is making forward progress.

Barry and Jodee are simply wonderful, and put on an incredible race. It's particularly gratifying to see so many people participating who really are new to the sport.

This was the first race that I've attended where I was totally calm, thinking, "OK... I've done this before... a lot... so this is going to be pretty straightforward." I've never been that calm before, and it helps to be so relaxed. Looking forward to the next one!